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Switch up your listening with classical music

Half an hour of back to back classical music including some Good Friday themed works by Buxtehude, William Walton, and the Medieval ensemble Joglaresa.

Good Friday reflection is woven into half an hour of back to back classical music to help you move gently into the Bank Holiday weekend. The sequence opens with a heart-wrenching setting of "Drop slow tears" by a 15-year-old William Walton, and a melancholy "Song for the lonely" by William Grant Still. Max Richter's score for the film Hamnet has won much praise, and the extract "Look at me" it sits alongside some reassuringly familiar and uplifting Bach, followed by a prelude based on a Welsh hymn tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Gavin Bryars' touching orchestral treatment of a recording made of a homeless person singing about his trust in Jesus was made famous by the singer Tom Waits, and sits movingly in between a poignant study of Christ's hands by Buxtehude, and Ola Gjeilo's depiction of Winter Light, performed by the saxophonist and Radio 3 presenter Jess Gillam. The mix comes to a close with a Medieval Italian song by St Lorenzo Giustiniani, performed by Joglaresa and Belinda Sykes, praising the loving devotion of Mary Magdalene, who was tasked with telling the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the tomb.

Producer: Helen Garrison

29 days left to listen

30 minutes

Music Played

  • William Walton

    A Litany: Drop, drop slow tears

    Conductor: Paul McCreesh. Choir: Gabrieli Consort.
    • A Song of Farewell: Music of Mourning and Consolation.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 201.
  • William Grant Still

    Song For The Lonely

    Performer: Titus Underwood. Performer: Lara Downes.
    • Remember Me To Harlem.
    • Rising Sun Records.
    • 103.
  • Max Richter

    Hamnet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack); Look at me

    Performer: Max Richter. Performer: Hugh Brunt.
    • Hamnet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
    • Decca (UMO) (Classics).
    • 4.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Jesu, joy of man's desiring

    Music Arranger: Myra Hess. Performer: Alexis Weissenberg.
    • EMI.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Rhosymedre (3 Preludes Founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes)

    Orchestrator: Arnold Foster. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • 100 Best British Classics.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 13.
  • Dieterich Buxtehude

    Membra Jesu Nostri: III. Ad manus.

    Ensemble: Ensemble Correspondances. Conductor: Sébastien Daucé.
    • Septem Verba & Membra Jesu Nostri.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 103.
  • Tom Waits & Gavin Bryars Ensemble

    Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

    • Phillips.
  • Ola Gjeilo

    Winter Light

    Performer: Jess Gillam. Ensemble: Jess Gillam Ensemble.
    • PRISM, Vol. 1.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 4.
  • St. Lorenzo Giustiniani

    O Madalena che portasti

    Ensemble: Joglaresa. Director: Belinda Sykes.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday19:00

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Music to help you focus

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